| And from a parent of "band geeks"... I have twins in H.S. Two years ago their band director tried to float the idea of a trip to Italy for the band. Cost? $3,000 PER STUDENT to be paid by the families! Guess what happened to THAT idea? Historically they've taken bus trips to Disneyland and "Lost Wages"... by bus. Typical trip cost for a trip "down south" $700 per student. A lot of fruit, cookie dough & magazine subscriptions. Still requires $$ from somebody's pocket to cover the cost and you can bet the school board (which struggles to even maintain the buildings) isn't going to "pony up".
A year ago some company tried to muscle in on the action claiming that they could provide just as good a trip and demanding to be allowed to "present a bid". Turned out that the trip involved parents driving their kids to Calgary (2 hours each way) to catch a 6 AM flight to San Fran. and then a bus ride down the cost to LA and then a return flight to Calgary. Cost? A measley $1,000 per member. (Can you hear the sound of a toilet flushing?) That trip was also severely modified. (Read "cancelled and replaced with a bus trip to Vancouver and back").
On occaision their trips involve a long-weekend run up to the Banff School of Fine Arts for workshops and "band bonding". Again, the parents (or kids themselves) have to come up with the cash. If they want to be in the jazz program they have to give up 3 noon hours per week (maybe that's why the leadpipes need so much scrubbing out!?) Concert band is "after school hours" which is yet another commitment. Only the kids who WANT to be in band and/or choir participate (a good thing at the High School level).
At this very moment the band and choir are in Victoria BC. Last night they went to U. Vic. to take in a concert by the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Then they run two concerts a day at area schools for the next three days; a lot of equipment packing/unpacking and bus loading/unloading. This trip required an individual commitment of $550 PLUS "pocket & lunch money". They've done a lot of fundraising so it was on average down to about $300 per person. Some of them work part time jobs to pay for it, some get the money from their parents. Some can't make the financial commitment and stay behind, "in class".
What do I, as a parent, see to make this all worthwhile? Well, 1) it keeps them associated with a social peer group that has high personal standards; 2) it teaches them the need for teamwork to an extreme level (I've always thought that banding requires a higher degree of teamwork than even team sports); 3) it teaches them a degree of independance: they are away without their parents and have to make decisions (what to eat, what they can afford, how to behave in public); 4) they get to travel "outside their own secure zone", meet other people and learn about others. But to my mind the single, most important element of band trips?
5) the availability of these trips provides an incentive for students to be in band in the first place and to stick with music for all of the other intellectual benefits and the spin-offs that are associated with learning music. They become better PEOPLE as a direct result.
I'd say it's extreme "value received". |